Family members of the five young Marines killed in training
exercises last week are now raising questions to the Department
of Defense.
The Marines lost their lives when the helicopter they were
flying from Nevada to California crashed into a forest during
one of the most intense rainstorms in a very long
time. Begging the question, why were the Marines in the
air during the storm?
Bradford Moulton is one of those speaking out.
He is the uncle of Captain Benjamin Moulton,
27 year old Marine who lost his life.
And Brad joins us right now.
Brad, good morning to you.
Good morning. I am so sorry for the loss of
your nephew.
Thank you very much.
You've got a problem with
during this. Essentially you refer to it as 1000 year
storm.
You guys have had so much rain out there and
the question
really is why would somebody green light them taken off
in a storm that bad?
That's something that I personally cannot understand
having worked with the military for most of my career.
I know the military does hazardous missions all the time,
and they train all the time,
but this was a highly
volatile storm. They had hurricane force winds.
These helicopters they were flying,
they don't have defrosters on the windshields.
If their rotors ice up,
they're going down. They were flying at an altitude
of
5400 feet, which is right where the snow and the
rain mixes
and
they shouldn't have been off the ground.
It was a training mission.
They could have waited four or five hours till the
storm passed and then go.
But this is some operations officer made the call and
and they they left and it's a terrible tragedy for
for all of these families.
We reach out with our deepest condolences and love and
prayers for the other families affected.
Captain Jack Casey, Captain Miguel Nava.
That's Corporal Donovan Davis and Sergeant Alec Langan.
It was where Ben's brothers.
And it's this is just terrible.
It's a waste of of such young talent.
Well thank you for remembering them by naming them
Brad. Tell tell me about your nephew Ben.
Ben was an awesome kid.
He was
a
super smart kid, probably one of the smartest kids to
ever come out of the Emmett School district,
got a full ride scholarship,
ROTC scholarship to the University of Washington,
graduated in three years with a political science degree,
went to officer candidate school,
was second in his class in OCS and was the
company commander.
He was at 1 marksmanship award and basic training.
He was the best shot
in his entire unit. He was a captain of the
University of Washington boxing team.
He liked to hunt and fish and build cars and
he was a blacksmith and a knife maker
and he was just a good,
good kid
and it's just a tragedy that that he's gone over
a stupid mistake. The governor,
I know that Ben grew up in Alaska and Idaho,
and I know that the governor of
Idaho ordered flags in that state to go to half
mast,
he said. To honor an Idaho boy who gave it
all for us.
Brad,
yes, we're our family, came to Idaho in the
1860s, so we're fifth generation Idahoans.
We live in the same town that the governor is
from
and
Ben was just an outstanding athlete,
president of his 4H clubs.
He was just just a good all around kid.
Just you couldn't get a better kid.
Just had a super moral compass
and he was going to be a Marine.
If it killed him, well
he made it to Marine
and they killed him.
That's all we can say.
That's all you can say,
Brad. Thank you very much.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
Thank you for having us.
Captain Ben Moulton was 27 years old.
May he rest in peace.